Family Law

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Mizzou's Basketball coach seeks to have NCAA case dismissed.

Came across this article in the Kansas City Star. It looks like Frank Haith the Missouri Tigers may not have to face the allegations after all depending on what evidence was kicked out by the NCAA.

By Terez Paylor of the KC Star COLUMBIA – A lawyer for Missouri men’s basketball coach Frank Haith says
the coach has asked the NCAA to throw out the charges of NCAA
violations made against him. One of Haith’s attorneys, Wally Bley of Columbia, Mo., said
Monday that client his filed a motion to dismiss the NCAA’s case against
him in the aftermath of the organization’s admission of misconduct in
its own investigation of the University of Miami case.

Bley said
Haith will now wait to hear back from the NCAA Committee on Infractions,
which will decide whether to hold a preliminary hearing for all parties
involved. Two of Haith’s former assistants at Miami — Jorge Fernandez
and Jake Morton — and former assistant football coach Aubrey Hill have
made similar requests, as has Miami. “They’ll read the motions
filed by the university and coaches and let us know if they’ll set a
time in front of a representative of the Committee on Infractions,” Bley
said. “The whole committee could consider it, although I think at this
point they will let preliminary matters be handled by one representative
of the committee.”

Bley declined to provide a copy of the motion but is optimistic he will receive a response from the NCAA fairly soon. “I think we’ll know something more about the procedure about where it will go from here in the next couple of weeks,” Bley said.

The
NCAA’s notice of allegations, presented to Haith in February, says that
imprisoned booster Nevin Shapiro threatened to claim he had paid a
Miami recruit unless Haith or Morton provided money to Shapiro.
According to the NCAA, Haith failed to alert the athletic department,
failed to ensure that Shapiro’s claim lacked merit or disclose Morton’s
financial dealings with Shapiro. Instead, the notice says, Haith gave
money to Morton that he then provided to Shapiro.

Haith has been
accused of failure to monitor by the NCAA, which has resulted in
recruiting restrictions and short suspensions for other coaches,
including Baylor’s Scott Drew and Connecticut’s Jim Calhoun. He and the
other former Miami coaches who received such notices are expected to be
able to defend themselves in June in front of the committee.

However,
an external review of the NCAA’s investigation of the Miami case
released in February uncovered a messy trail of missteps and
insufficient oversight by college sports’ governing body, and resulted
in 20 percent of the gathered evidence being thrown out. This opened a
window of opportunity for Miami and the accused to file motions to
dismiss.

Bley said there have been instances where the NCAA has
thrown out cases before the official hearing, “albeit rarely.” In the
meantime, he and another one of Haith’s lawyers, Michael L. Buckner of
Pompano Beach, say Missouri’s coach will continue to be patient and
abide by the NCAA’s process.
“This is all uncharted territory for
everybody, for all parties,” Buckner said. “We’ll be taking direction
from the Committee on Infractions and abiding by any deadlines or
schedule the set forth.”The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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